Croatia will kill me, says Dragan

No matter where they hide, all war criminals have to face justice for the the crimes they have committed. If they have done no harm, they will be set free.

A Serb man claims Croatian intelligence officers recently offered him incentives to lie about Captain Dragan. Croatia is wanting to use perjury and lies to convict him. Croatia can't run a fair trial. The country is as biased as heck.

http://www.thewest.com.au/aapstory.aspx?StoryName=343066

Man told to lie about Vasiljkovic: court

I am sure that Dragan did not leave Australia to drink tea and play cards with the Bosniaks and the Croats. Let the justice be done.

I am sure that Croatia wanted to eliminate its Serbian population under Tudjman, and Croats were firing ethnic Serbs; arresting, torturing and killing them before the war; and blowing up their cafes and businesses.

Serbs were acting in self-defense.

Australian and Argentinian Croats, plus others in the diaspora came to Croatia to held it rid it of its native Serbs population.

And one should remember that Slavonia, where many Serbs lived, was never part of Croatia until Yugoslavia was formed.

So Croatia gained territory with a large Serb population and when independent has carried out mass slaughters of those Serbs, while any remaining survivors - mainly elderly the Croats impatiently wait to die - are treated as 3rd class citizens.

The more I am reading about Croats, Serbs and Bosniaks, the more I am resolute in my conclusion: all Serbs should live in Serbia; all Croats in Croatia and all Bosniaks in Bosnia. Hatred has reached its peak and the best for all nations is to settle inside their own bounderies.

The violence in NOrthern Croatia did start with the Croat attacks on Serbs which then unraveled into full blown war in which civilians were the main target. This reminded Serbs of WW2 and thus they tried everything to prevet the sabe. Serbs get blamed because the international powers failed to do the right thing so they needed to blame a "powerful", communist, "dictator" in Milosevic. Also Bosnians, Croats and Albanians all had strong lobbys in USA against the Serbs. Rest is history.

Everybody is failing to focus on the matter here. The matter being that Captain Dragan was in Croatia when those atrocities were committed. Captain Dragan was a high ranking officer in the army, and the group that he commanded committed some grave atrocities. It doesn't take a genious to see that he was involved. There have been many Croats and Serbs that have had to stand trial for much smaller involvements in the war. I don't see how Dragan should be off the hook simply because he cleverly ran off, changed his name, and hid in Australia.

From the charges it sounds like they are charging him with one murder and one case of torture?

I do believe that anyone responsible for war crimes should see justice. However, I also suspect that a fair trial in Croatia might be very hard for him to get and in this he probably is correct (My cousin, a 70 year old Serbian lawyer in Croatia, was thrown to the ground and had a gun put to his head inside the middle of the courthouse simply because he tried to bring charges against some Ustashe militia for a wrongful death case). Unfortunately, I don't think anywhere else would be practical for such a trial. I just hope that if they are charging Serbs with War Crimes for one murder and one torture that they also charge Croatians for similar crimes. A lot of this went on in both sides, and it should be treated equally.

"The plaque, dated August this year, was dedicated to "Croatian concentration camp victims of Serb forces in Knin", he said."
This however I find extremely offensive because of the way they've treated the Jasenovac memorials which make no similar type of strong statements condemning one ethnic side for crimes against another. I've been Jasenovac and seen it for myself. The plaques and memorials in Dubrovnik are equally one-sided and make it sound like the Serbs and Montenegrins fully destroyed 90% of Old Town Dubrovnik, which is simply not true.

No war criminal should go free, including Bush, CLinton, and western politicians!

WE’RE NEVER GONNA STOP Listening To Serbs Communist Propaganda?
It seems as though the only problems which agonize Croatia are to have good relations with good neighbor Serbia. Good neighbor Serbian Communist Yugoslav Army (JNA), killed at least 15,000 Croatians and forcibly displaced, "cleansed," some 220,000 Croats from about one-third of Croatian territory. More than 15,000 (Fifteen THOUSAND!) Croats were murdered in areas occupied by rebel Serbs, and more than 4000 are still missing. Croatians should indeed be proud of their own liberation from such a hell. You have successfully portrayed self-proclaimed "Krajina" as some kind of historical Serbian province populated entirely by peace-loving, tax-paying Serbs ethnically cleansed by evil Croats in 1995. Blatant falsification -self-proclaimed "Krajina" was built in 1991 on the mass slaughter of up to 20,000 Croats and the ethnic cleansing of hundreds of thousands more.

"Unfortunately, I don't think anywhere else would be practical for such a trial."

I think a trial right on or very near the border of Croatia with Serbia would be best, and with police and/or soldiers from neutral, mature countries guarding the proceedings. There should be a temporary neutral groud for a few years to try the cases and then the court should close.

In this way witnesses would feel safer to testify and wouldn't have to travel far, like going to The Hague.

This trial should be done in Croatia. It's about a man who commited crimes in Croatia, and now he's trying to play the race card in avoiding his obvious fate. The witnesses that are testifying against him are Serbian. The Hague has investigated the so-called bias in the Croatian courts with these war crimes, and they find everything to be acceptable.

This war was brutal, yes. There were wrong doings done on both sides, yes. A lot of Serbs are angry at the fact that everyone sees them as being the only ones who did wrong, which is understandable. But, unfortunately for the Serbs, this is understandable as well. The Serbs WERE the aggressors. The war was fought in Croatia and in Bosnia. No bombs were dropped in Serbia. So it is a natural assumption that people would blame Serbs for everything. This Serb, Captain Dragan, is one of these people who are giving Serbs an even worse name. I don't know why Serbs still try and defend him. He commited the crime, now he must do the time.

MC,

You are one angry one sided guy. I hardly think its communist propaganda to ask that all sides be punished for war crimes.

Let me summarize your statements, and let me know if I’m wrong…

Ethnic cleansing against Croats = Very Bad, Evil and Should be punished

Ethnic cleansing against Serbs = Super Great, We finally finished what we started in WWII!!!!!!!!! Woot woot!!!!

Look MC, I had plenty of family ethnically cleansed in Krajina, and I travel through there often on my way to Bosnia. Have you seen Krajina? My guess is no. Or maybe my eyes are full of communist propaganda? I’m sure all those burned out Orthodox churches and homes covered in Ustasha graffiti are just my nationalist imagination. Oh, I know, they must have been Orthodox Croats or something? And that was done by Serbs?

Let’s face it MC, Croatia is JUST as guilty of war crimes as Serbia. Is Croatia is so innocent, why did you turn on your allies the Bosniaks and cleanse them? How do you explain Mostar? I saw that city, it’s the most destroyed city I’ve seen in Bosnia or Croatia, its just a pile of rubble. If that’s how Croatia treats its allies, then I’m happy we weren’t on the same side!

At least the Serbian side has apologized for its crimes in Srebinica, Croatia celebrates Operation Storm as a national holiday, and Tudjman as a hero. We sent Milosevic to the Hague. Milosevic was the worst criminal with Tudjman coming in as a close second.

Yes, Serbs committed crimes, and we did plenty of it and those responsible should see real justice. However, it sounds like from the article that they are charging this guy with ONE murder and ONE case of torture. That doesn’t support your allegations of tens of thousands. However, that being said, even ONE murder is too much and should be punished. My only request is that the same treatment be meted out to those Croatians that did the same. You seem to be making the argument that vengeance against Serbs is a legitimate reason for committing war crimes. If that is your logic, then Serbs should have been justified in what they did in response to WWII? I simply refuse to buy into that logic.

MC, you should join me in condemning ALL SIDES that committed war crimes. We need to look forward and not backwards or the cycle of violence will continue. Maybe not in Croatia, that “problem” was brutally solved, but I think for the good of the entire region, all crimes should be dealt with.

Speaking of the same old propoganda MC you sound just like the fascists who make the same old argument, call a serb a communist and Croats can behave like fascists. Plenty of killing of Serbs prior to operation storm as you so dutifully neglected to point out was done. The fighting broke out because Croats starting behaving like Ustashe again nothing to do with Communism what so ever. P.S. Serbs lived in Krajina for hundreds of years and much of it wouldn't have even been Croatian if Serbia hadn't fought with the allies in WWI. For some inexplicable reason much of dalmatia was granted to Croatia for no good reason.

MC. You forget that the commie leader in yugoslavia was croatian. Maybe we should discuss the croatian fascist propaganda that people like yourself are spreading. So, Krajina didn't exist before 1991??? How many Serbs got slaughtered? How many muslims did the croatians slaughter? Do you recommend that we refer to a Tudjman Textbook for this data?

Blinded by wealth we never truly see the heart of gold. truth prevails, if that is so then he has nothing to fear. Lies will only dig your grave deeper.

My fiancees uncle was the first person to die in the Lika war. He was a Serb and was shot by a Serb. In General the whole thing started with a Neo Ustashe government in Zagreb provoking a bunch of crazy Serb guys with guns and a recent history a persecution by the NDH. The government in Belgrade stoked the fire and helped arm the nutters but without the manipulations provacations from Zagreb the Lika conflict would probably never have occurred.
If the local Serbs had not believed the crazy stuff they saw on Serbian TV there would have been little support for an insurrection. The anti Serb pronouncements in the Croat Media made the crazy crap on Belgrade TV seem believable.

The more I am reading about Croats, Serbs and Bosniaks, the more I am resolute in my conclusion: all Serbs should live in Serbia; all Croats in Croatia and all Bosniaks in Bosnia. Hatred has reached its peak and the best for all nations is to settle inside their own bounderies.

No matter where they hide, all war criminals have to face justice for the the crimes they have committed. If they have done no harm, they will be set free.

A Serb man claims Croatian intelligence officers recently offered him incentives to lie about Captain Dragan. Croatia is wanting to use perjury and lies to convict him. Croatia can't run a fair trial. The country is as biased as heck.

http://www.thewest.com.au/aapstory.aspx?StoryName=343066

Man told to lie about Vasiljkovic: court

I am sure that Dragan did not leave Australia to drink tea and play cards with the Bosniaks and the Croats. Let the justice be done.

I am sure that Croatia wanted to eliminate its Serbian population under Tudjman, and Croats were firing ethnic Serbs; arresting, torturing and killing them before the war; and blowing up their cafes and businesses.

Serbs were acting in self-defense.

Australian and Argentinian Croats, plus others in the diaspora came to Croatia to held it rid it of its native Serbs population.

And one should remember that Slavonia, where many Serbs lived, was never part of Croatia until Yugoslavia was formed.

So Croatia gained territory with a large Serb population and when independent has carried out mass slaughters of those Serbs, while any remaining survivors - mainly elderly the Croats impatiently wait to die - are treated as 3rd class citizens.

The violence in NOrthern Croatia did start with the Croat attacks on Serbs which then unraveled into full blown war in which civilians were the main target. This reminded Serbs of WW2 and thus they tried everything to prevet the sabe. Serbs get blamed because the international powers failed to do the right thing so they needed to blame a "powerful", communist, "dictator" in Milosevic. Also Bosnians, Croats and Albanians all had strong lobbys in USA against the Serbs. Rest is history.

Everybody is failing to focus on the matter here. The matter being that Captain Dragan was in Croatia when those atrocities were committed. Captain Dragan was a high ranking officer in the army, and the group that he commanded committed some grave atrocities. It doesn't take a genious to see that he was involved. There have been many Croats and Serbs that have had to stand trial for much smaller involvements in the war. I don't see how Dragan should be off the hook simply because he cleverly ran off, changed his name, and hid in Australia.

From the charges it sounds like they are charging him with one murder and one case of torture?

I do believe that anyone responsible for war crimes should see justice. However, I also suspect that a fair trial in Croatia might be very hard for him to get and in this he probably is correct (My cousin, a 70 year old Serbian lawyer in Croatia, was thrown to the ground and had a gun put to his head inside the middle of the courthouse simply because he tried to bring charges against some Ustashe militia for a wrongful death case). Unfortunately, I don't think anywhere else would be practical for such a trial. I just hope that if they are charging Serbs with War Crimes for one murder and one torture that they also charge Croatians for similar crimes. A lot of this went on in both sides, and it should be treated equally.

"The plaque, dated August this year, was dedicated to "Croatian concentration camp victims of Serb forces in Knin", he said."
This however I find extremely offensive because of the way they've treated the Jasenovac memorials which make no similar type of strong statements condemning one ethnic side for crimes against another. I've been Jasenovac and seen it for myself. The plaques and memorials in Dubrovnik are equally one-sided and make it sound like the Serbs and Montenegrins fully destroyed 90% of Old Town Dubrovnik, which is simply not true.

No war criminal should go free, including Bush, CLinton, and western politicians!

WE’RE NEVER GONNA STOP Listening To Serbs Communist Propaganda?
It seems as though the only problems which agonize Croatia are to have good relations with good neighbor Serbia. Good neighbor Serbian Communist Yugoslav Army (JNA), killed at least 15,000 Croatians and forcibly displaced, "cleansed," some 220,000 Croats from about one-third of Croatian territory. More than 15,000 (Fifteen THOUSAND!) Croats were murdered in areas occupied by rebel Serbs, and more than 4000 are still missing. Croatians should indeed be proud of their own liberation from such a hell. You have successfully portrayed self-proclaimed "Krajina" as some kind of historical Serbian province populated entirely by peace-loving, tax-paying Serbs ethnically cleansed by evil Croats in 1995. Blatant falsification -self-proclaimed "Krajina" was built in 1991 on the mass slaughter of up to 20,000 Croats and the ethnic cleansing of hundreds of thousands more.

"Unfortunately, I don't think anywhere else would be practical for such a trial."

I think a trial right on or very near the border of Croatia with Serbia would be best, and with police and/or soldiers from neutral, mature countries guarding the proceedings. There should be a temporary neutral groud for a few years to try the cases and then the court should close.

In this way witnesses would feel safer to testify and wouldn't have to travel far, like going to The Hague.

This trial should be done in Croatia. It's about a man who commited crimes in Croatia, and now he's trying to play the race card in avoiding his obvious fate. The witnesses that are testifying against him are Serbian. The Hague has investigated the so-called bias in the Croatian courts with these war crimes, and they find everything to be acceptable.

This war was brutal, yes. There were wrong doings done on both sides, yes. A lot of Serbs are angry at the fact that everyone sees them as being the only ones who did wrong, which is understandable. But, unfortunately for the Serbs, this is understandable as well. The Serbs WERE the aggressors. The war was fought in Croatia and in Bosnia. No bombs were dropped in Serbia. So it is a natural assumption that people would blame Serbs for everything. This Serb, Captain Dragan, is one of these people who are giving Serbs an even worse name. I don't know why Serbs still try and defend him. He commited the crime, now he must do the time.

MC,

You are one angry one sided guy. I hardly think its communist propaganda to ask that all sides be punished for war crimes.

Let me summarize your statements, and let me know if I’m wrong…

Ethnic cleansing against Croats = Very Bad, Evil and Should be punished

Ethnic cleansing against Serbs = Super Great, We finally finished what we started in WWII!!!!!!!!! Woot woot!!!!

Look MC, I had plenty of family ethnically cleansed in Krajina, and I travel through there often on my way to Bosnia. Have you seen Krajina? My guess is no. Or maybe my eyes are full of communist propaganda? I’m sure all those burned out Orthodox churches and homes covered in Ustasha graffiti are just my nationalist imagination. Oh, I know, they must have been Orthodox Croats or something? And that was done by Serbs?

Let’s face it MC, Croatia is JUST as guilty of war crimes as Serbia. Is Croatia is so innocent, why did you turn on your allies the Bosniaks and cleanse them? How do you explain Mostar? I saw that city, it’s the most destroyed city I’ve seen in Bosnia or Croatia, its just a pile of rubble. If that’s how Croatia treats its allies, then I’m happy we weren’t on the same side!

At least the Serbian side has apologized for its crimes in Srebinica, Croatia celebrates Operation Storm as a national holiday, and Tudjman as a hero. We sent Milosevic to the Hague. Milosevic was the worst criminal with Tudjman coming in as a close second.

Yes, Serbs committed crimes, and we did plenty of it and those responsible should see real justice. However, it sounds like from the article that they are charging this guy with ONE murder and ONE case of torture. That doesn’t support your allegations of tens of thousands. However, that being said, even ONE murder is too much and should be punished. My only request is that the same treatment be meted out to those Croatians that did the same. You seem to be making the argument that vengeance against Serbs is a legitimate reason for committing war crimes. If that is your logic, then Serbs should have been justified in what they did in response to WWII? I simply refuse to buy into that logic.

MC, you should join me in condemning ALL SIDES that committed war crimes. We need to look forward and not backwards or the cycle of violence will continue. Maybe not in Croatia, that “problem” was brutally solved, but I think for the good of the entire region, all crimes should be dealt with.

Speaking of the same old propoganda MC you sound just like the fascists who make the same old argument, call a serb a communist and Croats can behave like fascists. Plenty of killing of Serbs prior to operation storm as you so dutifully neglected to point out was done. The fighting broke out because Croats starting behaving like Ustashe again nothing to do with Communism what so ever. P.S. Serbs lived in Krajina for hundreds of years and much of it wouldn't have even been Croatian if Serbia hadn't fought with the allies in WWI. For some inexplicable reason much of dalmatia was granted to Croatia for no good reason.

MC. You forget that the commie leader in yugoslavia was croatian. Maybe we should discuss the croatian fascist propaganda that people like yourself are spreading. So, Krajina didn't exist before 1991??? How many Serbs got slaughtered? How many muslims did the croatians slaughter? Do you recommend that we refer to a Tudjman Textbook for this data?

Blinded by wealth we never truly see the heart of gold. truth prevails, if that is so then he has nothing to fear. Lies will only dig your grave deeper.

My fiancees uncle was the first person to die in the Lika war. He was a Serb and was shot by a Serb. In General the whole thing started with a Neo Ustashe government in Zagreb provoking a bunch of crazy Serb guys with guns and a recent history a persecution by the NDH. The government in Belgrade stoked the fire and helped arm the nutters but without the manipulations provacations from Zagreb the Lika conflict would probably never have occurred.
If the local Serbs had not believed the crazy stuff they saw on Serbian TV there would have been little support for an insurrection. The anti Serb pronouncements in the Croat Media made the crazy crap on Belgrade TV seem believable.